One Shot: Guardian
by vildtiger
Summary: Still new to the job, Scout is not doing well and seek cover from a bad hit he took from the enemy Soldier. the enemy spy finds him but instead of put a bullet through him, as he usually would Spy instead secretly help the his own son.


_"You failed! Prepare for sudden death!"_

Right as the voice of the Administrator said it over the megaphones, the BLU team's weapons stop working and have now only two choices, fight with their fists or run for dear life and hope the winning RED team pumped on bloodlust won't find them. Scout voted for the latter and takes the run for it.

He has only been hired as Mann Co's BLU scout for a week and is already suffering under the circumstances the War Games are putting him through.

His fellow team members do not give a crap about him, all he will be is the replacement of their former scout. Scout did not let that bother him, he was used to be bullied and know that soon his hard work getting their respect will pay off.

That was the easy part really. The hard part was getting used to the war itself.

His oldest brother had been fighting in the world war; he warned Scout it would be bad. Well, his brother didn't warn him it would be this bad!

The winning RED team showed no mercy to the lost BLU team, they did not make the humiliation of losing quick, instead, some of them made it agonizingly slow, did not matter to Scout really.

All his mind was on about is surviving. As said before, he has only been in the War Games for a week and he would've been way calmer about this whole dying thing if the gorgeous woman to Miss Pauling had been the only one explaining him about the respawn: that as long he is connected to it, he will return every time he got killed.

But things weren't that simple, not only did he die many times but the RED team showed no mercy and would not hesitate to leave him to suffer a slow agonizing death. He was sure he would sooner or later get used to it, the others did so he is sure he would too. But then Sniper accidentally dropped the bomb that one of these many deaths might be how he would really die. It happened when he asked Sniper what happened to the former scout.

em"Respawn failure, never know when it's going to happen. My thoughts on this: I think it can only pick one up so many times."/em Sniper had said and had left Scout not long after. The others had spoken a bit on their theory why the respawn would fail on them, all have gotten used to this unknown threat, all had learned to just deal with it. Scout wasn't that lucky.

He doesn't want to die! Not like this, he's only twenty-two for fuck sake! And if he dies then his clone is going to take his place and ma won't be able to know the difference! The thought of being killed and his family wouldn't know it as a clone will just take his spot; like he never existed… that terrifies him.

"Ha! Found you city boy!" RED Soldier cries can be head and only Scout's speed saved him from been turned into a bloody wall decoration. Still, the explosion of the rocket left Scout with a large gash wound on his side and he left a small trail of blood as he ran into the sewer area, hoping he can find a medi-pack. There was no medi-pack at the spot, and won't be any more before tomorrow's bloodbath.

"Shit…" Scout muses at this realization, he did for a second consider going back out and let himself get killed instead of bleeding to death, but the fear of he might not respawn still scares him to the core. No, he won't risk it. So holding over the bleeding side, Scout limps over to the corner of the spot, plums down behind a few crates to wait out the humiliation round as the older members call this to end.

When the shooting stops he can head back to base and get Medic to look at it… and hope that Nazi quack does not do some horrific experiment on him as Soldier kept saying he will. Scout does agree with Soldier, Medic does not hide the fact that he does not care about them as his patients, he only sees them only as his test subjects.

Maybe he should instead go to Engineer, better get lectured his ear off by the Texan than them literally falling off by Medic.

On top of the catwalk, RED Spy watches Scout hide away from his team, holding over the bleeding wound that lead Spy to him in the first place. Spy aims his gun at the hiding speedster to put this pathetic boy out of his misery… but something stops him. The look in the boy's eyes, close to panic and keep darting around by each sound coming from the slaughter going on outside.

Spy once had that look in his eyes as well, he was younger than Scout is now but he still remembers the pure horror, the cold fear that clung to his spine as he stood and stared at the burning ruins that once had been his family home. Unable to remove his eyes from what had been his family- turned into humanoid crisps by the enemy soldiers.

Like him, Scout is regretting his choice but is forced to live with it. According to Scout's clone stationed with the RED tema, this young man won't be able to leave this meaningless war before two years has passed. Usually, Spy would be quite smug about it, but this time he does not want to say: "I told you so" about his words that Scout won't last long in this war.

He does not feel pity for the boy, he likes to think he does not care for him.

Yet he cannot deny the fact that he keeps seeing that happy baby he fell head over heels all those years past.

The sound of shooting has stopped, the humiliation round is over, Scout can go back to base now but he won't. Even from his spot Spy can see that Scout is too weak to move, he has lost too much blood from the blast he retrieved from Soldier. Kid is going to bleed out.

Spy knows this all will be over if he just shot him, Scout will respawn, he knows there is no need for having those stupid thoughts. And yet, against all his logic, Spy approaches the unconscious speedster and uses the bottle of the powerful healing gel all the medical supplies have on Scout's wound. Spy always carries one around in cases he got wounded, easier than to find a medi-pack and risk more exposure.

It closes the wound but it won't replenish the blood Scout lost, so he probably won't regain consciousness for a couple of hours.

Spy can leave Scout, but blaming himself for this moment of weakness. Spy instead sits down beside the speedster, and carefully, so not to wake Scout and end up in a situation he does not want to explain, he allows Scout rest up against his chest. It's strange to see how fragile Scout looks when he's not running his mouth how awesome he is and swinging that stupid baseball bat of his.

At this moment, Spy sees the young man, still having a childish point of view on things as Scout truly is. So stupid of him to come here, but… well; "Seems like rash decisions lie in the family…" He muses softly to the unconscious figure of Scout.

It feels like a lifetime ago, but he too was outgoing, full of life and a bit too arrogant for his own good.

The arrogance is still there but everything else has been smothered like the stupid child as he was back in those time.

"You are such a stupid kid, did you really think war is a game?" Spy asks the boy as he reclaims a cigarette from his disguise kit, inhaling the indicting and far from healthy smoke Spy eyes the now sleeping quite peacefully speedster.

He sure needed it, but… "Don't get used to it. Tomorrow it will be back to business." Not sure those words were meant to Scout or himself. He is risking hell of a lot doing this, but tonight he will be on his son's side. Not like it will change anything, Scout will still hate him in tomorrow's battle and he will still insult before murdering him. Just as things should be.

When Scout regains conscious, it is in middle of the night, his body hurts like hell and he had a weird dream of someone helping him. Brushing the dream caused by blood loss aside, Scout hauls himself up on his feet and limps back to base.

He is sort of glad no one from the team notices him other than Engie, but the Texan is kind enough not to ask questions and simply helps him over to the workshop where he builds a Dispenser for him. "Thanks." He mutters as the wounds close up.

Engineer gives him a smile. "Not a problem kid." And leaves him with; "Get some rest, we still have a war to fight tomorrow."

Scout nods and after have made sure all of his wounds have been healed up, he heads to his room.

The next months, Scout used that spot to hide when things got too tough for him, it really helped him out and gave him a chance to both heal up and get used to this brutal reality he found himself in. He would never know why but the reason that particular place always was safe for him was that of a certain Spy, watching over him from the shadows.


End file.
